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Well this post is about asking which next generation will win the next console war! Well obviously everyone and I know it's gonna be the Gamecube! For people who doubt me, he's why:-
In the mid 80's Nintendo entered into the console market with the hugely successful 8-bit console the "Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)". Selling over 50 million units in the US alone the NES became the dominant console on the market. Then in 1991 Nintendo released its successor to the NES, the 16-bit "Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)". This wasn't as much as a market dominator as the NES was, but it did just as well as it's competitors. One of the strong points of the SNES was its abundance of RPG's (many by Squaresoft), which every other system lacked.
In 1995 Sony and Sega both released their 32-bit consoles. To compete with these consoles Nintendo released it's 64-bit console the "Nintendo 64 (N64)" in 1996. On release the N64 sold remarkably well. Shortly after the release though the life of the N64 started to go down hill. With few releases there wasn't enough games to keep people devoted to the system. One of the main reasons for there being so few releases was that the development costs of the N64 were so big. In the past, Nintendo charged a premium price to publish games on its system. Publishers had to pay Nintendo upwards of $35 per cartridge with a minimum order of 100,000 units, adding up to an expense of $3.5 million before development costs were figured in. This put many developers off producing games for the N64 and turned them to the ever-popular CD based console the "Playstation". Another one of the reasons that the N64 didn't do too well was due to its lack of Role Playing Games (RPG's). The development company Squaresoft used to make loads of RPG's for Nintendo that were hugely popular. But when Nintendo decided to make the N64 cartridge based it fell out with Squaresoft due to the massive development costs. With this fall out Squaresoft took their franchise over to Sony and released their famous RPG's on their system, adding to its popularity.
So due to the not hugely successful N64 you may be thinking why I think the Gamecube will be the next market leader in the console market. Well for starters Nintendo are scrapping the cartridge-based system for a system based on mini CD's. These mini CD's will cut the cost of development and with Nintendo willing to cut deals with high-profile publishers this time round the development cost will be even lower. Also with the mini CD's I just mentioned, these will help to get developers onboard the Gamecube bandwagon because they incorporate some very good anti piracy techniques. The mini CD's are only 8cm wide so you will not be able to use an everyday CD writer to copy the CD's and put them in your machine. And the inner curves of the 8cm discs feature proper branding which will also help against piracy. These anti piracy methods will help get developers onboard because they don't like it when they loose out on thousand of pounds due to people copying their software. Also to get developers onboard Nintendo have designed the Gamecube so that it is really easy to produce games for. Reports have been coming out from games developers that the Playstation 2 is a monster to produce games on, but the Gamecube is supposed to be really easy to make games on. This will win over developers because it means that development costs will be down due to the reduced time spent producing the games.
Another reason the Gamecube will be a success is that Squaresoft is not just supporting Sony anymore. They have been in talks with Nintendo and are now going to produce games again for Nintendo, which will help because one of the N64's failures was a lack of RPG's, and with Squaresoft onboard this should not happen with the Gamecube.
Another point to make is that Nintendo is not marketing the Gamecube as a total home entertainment system like the Playstation 2 is. Instead Nintendo is marketing it as the best games console available. By producing the Gamecube as only a games playing machine Nintendo are keeping the selling price to a minimum because to incorporate the needed hardware and software to make a system play DVD's and music as well as it's games, beefs up the price quite a bit.
Nintendo are aware of the other consoles coming out and so to compete head on with the X-Box, Nintendo are letting Matsushita integrate Gamecube's technology into it's own branded DVD consumer electronic products, so that you can watch DVD's and play Gamecube games on the same machine.
One of the other aspects that will propel Nintendo in the next fight for supremacy is the arrival of the next incantation of the Gameboy the "Gameboy Advance". Having just been released the GBA has sold phenomenally well. Nintendo did a very craft marketing campaign by putting a picture of the Gamecube on the back of the GBA box, so that it made aware to people not in the no, that soon the new Nintendo machine is going to be released. The Gameboy is currently the leading handheld console on the market with very little opposition to it. And so, now that the GB Advance has been released everyone will want one. The advantage this has for Nintendo is that by making games on the Gameboy Advance and Gamecube link up, people that own a Gameboy Advance may feel the need to buy a Gamecube so that they can use the stats etc they have acquired on a game on the Gameboy, on the version of the game on the Gamecube.
Pokemon! This is one of the most popular things in ages. Nintendo has capitalized on this franchise quite well and numerous versions of the game have been produced and they sell like mad. More than 65,000,000 Pokemon videogames had been sold world-wide as of July 5th, 2000. Now with figures like that you must understand that Pokemon is a very powerful franchise to use to win over the masses to a new machine. And so Nintendo are going to capitalize very well on Pokemon on the Gamecube by creating a fully 3D version of the ever popular game. And I must say that if that doesn't win over a few million consumers to the Gamecube I don't know what will.
Another reason that people will buy the Gamecube though is for the next Mario and Zelda games. Mario redefined the platformer game with Super Mario 64 on the N64 and people have been gagging for a sequel ever since. And if you have seen the resent footage of Mario Sunshine, you will see that it is looking to be one of the greatest platformers in recent times. Also the new Zelda game has stunned the world. Some people were really shocked and disappointed by the new look and preferred the old version, but if you see the new game in motion you fall in love with its uniqueness and just want to play it.
My final reason why the Gamecube should/will dominate is that of the games. With updates to classic games like Waverace, 1080, Mario, Zelda etc which all look stunning, people just have to fall in love with the cube. Also, I feel Nintendo is about the only developer still interested in originality. This can be seen in games like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin, two games, which just look FUN! There's a problem with most games on other platforms. There just not fun. You might play them, but you just don't get the great sense of fun you always get when playing on a Nintendo machine.
Well I think that's enough on why the Gamecube will win. Some of that was from a speech I wrote for a group comms presentation on who will win the next console war. I did manage to convince the group that the Gamecube will win, even though they mainly felt that the X-Box was gonna win. I mean there's no way the X-Box is going to win. Just take a look at it. Have you seen an uglier console, (well maybe the PS2). And the controller, how skanked up is that? Give me a well-designed Nintendo pad any day! Also the X-Box's games list is just gonna be full of PC ports and no original games at all. And going that your reading this I'm pretty sure in assuming you've got a PC which would be better for playing those games, than some skanked up conversions on the X-Box. My final point on the X-Box is that it's Microsoft! Who in their right mind wants to own a console made by them!?! As for the PS2. Well what can I say. My dopey mate bought one on the day of its release and I go round to his house and there are just not really any decent games to play on it. He's got GT3 and he's just bought Extreme G 3 and he says quite rightly that Extreme G 3 is better. Why you might ask. Well cos GT3 is just boring after a while. It's the complete driving spogs game, which just gets boring. Whereas Extreme G 3 is a high-octane fun racer. As for the other games on the PS2, well there all just PANTS! And when I'm at his house we end up playing decent games on the N64 like Perfect Dark, or Conkers Bad Fur Day, or we even play some decent games on his Dreamcast. We just hardly ever play with his kak PS2!
So who is gonna dispute that the Gamecube won't be the console leader in the next console war? It may take a while for the Gamecube to catch up to the already released PS2 (because all those stupid people who went out and bought one just cos they owned the first Playstation). I hope to hear some poor excuses from X-Box and PS2 fans as to why I'm wrong and why their waste of space consoles will be putting up a fight.
Cooky
p.s. Actually the X-Box has one thing going for it. It has the Buffy license! And I'm gonna kill the pr*t who gave that exclusively to Microsoft! Oh well, it'll probably still come out on PC so I'm not gonna cry! See another reason not to get an X-Box, all their games'll come out on PC anyway!
In the mid 80's Nintendo entered into the console market with the hugely successful 8-bit console the "Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)". Selling over 50 million units in the US alone the NES became the dominant console on the market. Then in 1991 Nintendo released its successor to the NES, the 16-bit "Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)". This wasn't as much as a market dominator as the NES was, but it did just as well as it's competitors. One of the strong points of the SNES was its abundance of RPG's (many by Squaresoft), which every other system lacked.
In 1995 Sony and Sega both released their 32-bit consoles. To compete with these consoles Nintendo released it's 64-bit console the "Nintendo 64 (N64)" in 1996. On release the N64 sold remarkably well. Shortly after the release though the life of the N64 started to go down hill. With few releases there wasn't enough games to keep people devoted to the system. One of the main reasons for there being so few releases was that the development costs of the N64 were so big. In the past, Nintendo charged a premium price to publish games on its system. Publishers had to pay Nintendo upwards of $35 per cartridge with a minimum order of 100,000 units, adding up to an expense of $3.5 million before development costs were figured in. This put many developers off producing games for the N64 and turned them to the ever-popular CD based console the "Playstation". Another one of the reasons that the N64 didn't do too well was due to its lack of Role Playing Games (RPG's). The development company Squaresoft used to make loads of RPG's for Nintendo that were hugely popular. But when Nintendo decided to make the N64 cartridge based it fell out with Squaresoft due to the massive development costs. With this fall out Squaresoft took their franchise over to Sony and released their famous RPG's on their system, adding to its popularity.
So due to the not hugely successful N64 you may be thinking why I think the Gamecube will be the next market leader in the console market. Well for starters Nintendo are scrapping the cartridge-based system for a system based on mini CD's. These mini CD's will cut the cost of development and with Nintendo willing to cut deals with high-profile publishers this time round the development cost will be even lower. Also with the mini CD's I just mentioned, these will help to get developers onboard the Gamecube bandwagon because they incorporate some very good anti piracy techniques. The mini CD's are only 8cm wide so you will not be able to use an everyday CD writer to copy the CD's and put them in your machine. And the inner curves of the 8cm discs feature proper branding which will also help against piracy. These anti piracy methods will help get developers onboard because they don't like it when they loose out on thousand of pounds due to people copying their software. Also to get developers onboard Nintendo have designed the Gamecube so that it is really easy to produce games for. Reports have been coming out from games developers that the Playstation 2 is a monster to produce games on, but the Gamecube is supposed to be really easy to make games on. This will win over developers because it means that development costs will be down due to the reduced time spent producing the games.
Another reason the Gamecube will be a success is that Squaresoft is not just supporting Sony anymore. They have been in talks with Nintendo and are now going to produce games again for Nintendo, which will help because one of the N64's failures was a lack of RPG's, and with Squaresoft onboard this should not happen with the Gamecube.
Another point to make is that Nintendo is not marketing the Gamecube as a total home entertainment system like the Playstation 2 is. Instead Nintendo is marketing it as the best games console available. By producing the Gamecube as only a games playing machine Nintendo are keeping the selling price to a minimum because to incorporate the needed hardware and software to make a system play DVD's and music as well as it's games, beefs up the price quite a bit.
Nintendo are aware of the other consoles coming out and so to compete head on with the X-Box, Nintendo are letting Matsushita integrate Gamecube's technology into it's own branded DVD consumer electronic products, so that you can watch DVD's and play Gamecube games on the same machine.
One of the other aspects that will propel Nintendo in the next fight for supremacy is the arrival of the next incantation of the Gameboy the "Gameboy Advance". Having just been released the GBA has sold phenomenally well. Nintendo did a very craft marketing campaign by putting a picture of the Gamecube on the back of the GBA box, so that it made aware to people not in the no, that soon the new Nintendo machine is going to be released. The Gameboy is currently the leading handheld console on the market with very little opposition to it. And so, now that the GB Advance has been released everyone will want one. The advantage this has for Nintendo is that by making games on the Gameboy Advance and Gamecube link up, people that own a Gameboy Advance may feel the need to buy a Gamecube so that they can use the stats etc they have acquired on a game on the Gameboy, on the version of the game on the Gamecube.
Pokemon! This is one of the most popular things in ages. Nintendo has capitalized on this franchise quite well and numerous versions of the game have been produced and they sell like mad. More than 65,000,000 Pokemon videogames had been sold world-wide as of July 5th, 2000. Now with figures like that you must understand that Pokemon is a very powerful franchise to use to win over the masses to a new machine. And so Nintendo are going to capitalize very well on Pokemon on the Gamecube by creating a fully 3D version of the ever popular game. And I must say that if that doesn't win over a few million consumers to the Gamecube I don't know what will.
Another reason that people will buy the Gamecube though is for the next Mario and Zelda games. Mario redefined the platformer game with Super Mario 64 on the N64 and people have been gagging for a sequel ever since. And if you have seen the resent footage of Mario Sunshine, you will see that it is looking to be one of the greatest platformers in recent times. Also the new Zelda game has stunned the world. Some people were really shocked and disappointed by the new look and preferred the old version, but if you see the new game in motion you fall in love with its uniqueness and just want to play it.
My final reason why the Gamecube should/will dominate is that of the games. With updates to classic games like Waverace, 1080, Mario, Zelda etc which all look stunning, people just have to fall in love with the cube. Also, I feel Nintendo is about the only developer still interested in originality. This can be seen in games like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin, two games, which just look FUN! There's a problem with most games on other platforms. There just not fun. You might play them, but you just don't get the great sense of fun you always get when playing on a Nintendo machine.
Well I think that's enough on why the Gamecube will win. Some of that was from a speech I wrote for a group comms presentation on who will win the next console war. I did manage to convince the group that the Gamecube will win, even though they mainly felt that the X-Box was gonna win. I mean there's no way the X-Box is going to win. Just take a look at it. Have you seen an uglier console, (well maybe the PS2). And the controller, how skanked up is that? Give me a well-designed Nintendo pad any day! Also the X-Box's games list is just gonna be full of PC ports and no original games at all. And going that your reading this I'm pretty sure in assuming you've got a PC which would be better for playing those games, than some skanked up conversions on the X-Box. My final point on the X-Box is that it's Microsoft! Who in their right mind wants to own a console made by them!?! As for the PS2. Well what can I say. My dopey mate bought one on the day of its release and I go round to his house and there are just not really any decent games to play on it. He's got GT3 and he's just bought Extreme G 3 and he says quite rightly that Extreme G 3 is better. Why you might ask. Well cos GT3 is just boring after a while. It's the complete driving spogs game, which just gets boring. Whereas Extreme G 3 is a high-octane fun racer. As for the other games on the PS2, well there all just PANTS! And when I'm at his house we end up playing decent games on the N64 like Perfect Dark, or Conkers Bad Fur Day, or we even play some decent games on his Dreamcast. We just hardly ever play with his kak PS2!
So who is gonna dispute that the Gamecube won't be the console leader in the next console war? It may take a while for the Gamecube to catch up to the already released PS2 (because all those stupid people who went out and bought one just cos they owned the first Playstation). I hope to hear some poor excuses from X-Box and PS2 fans as to why I'm wrong and why their waste of space consoles will be putting up a fight.
Cooky
p.s. Actually the X-Box has one thing going for it. It has the Buffy license! And I'm gonna kill the pr*t who gave that exclusively to Microsoft! Oh well, it'll probably still come out on PC so I'm not gonna cry! See another reason not to get an X-Box, all their games'll come out on PC anyway!
Well lets face it, it's us the developers have got to impress, without our custom big companies are nothing without us, it is us the consumer who have made them what they are today, and if we are'nt pleased then they are not going to suceed in the competitive market, do you get what i'm saying?
slik ~_~
slik ~_~
Nice one Cooky. That was an enjoyable read.
Oh, and Meka, I don't suppose you said 'gamers will win' because competition will be ever-fiercer and developers will have to raise their standards?
Oh, and Meka, I don't suppose you said 'gamers will win' because competition will be ever-fiercer and developers will have to raise their standards?
Gamers will win.
Nintendo, nuff said.
slik ~_~
slik ~_~
Nintendo have a fantstic chance of winning with there early titles being released fast and furious within the first few months of the consoles launch as compared to the N64 style drip stlye flow of games that came few and far between.
Nintendo also have a lot of third party developers producing games for the Gamecube so there will be no shortage of games ad with the move to disc and the none exestet loading times and the amazing power and potential of the console and many people anticipating the consoles launcg and with Zelda and Mario and other Nintendo/other games developers classics on the horizon and, and, and.........
phew better calm down. :D
Anyway im in the Nintendo corner, the othre consoles have a chance........ well the X-Box dosent seem to be too popular but still.
Nintendo also have a lot of third party developers producing games for the Gamecube so there will be no shortage of games ad with the move to disc and the none exestet loading times and the amazing power and potential of the console and many people anticipating the consoles launcg and with Zelda and Mario and other Nintendo/other games developers classics on the horizon and, and, and.........
phew better calm down. :D
Anyway im in the Nintendo corner, the othre consoles have a chance........ well the X-Box dosent seem to be too popular but still.
Well this post is about asking which next generation will win the next console war! Well obviously everyone and I know it's gonna be the Gamecube! For people who doubt me, he's why:-
In the mid 80's Nintendo entered into the console market with the hugely successful 8-bit console the "Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)". Selling over 50 million units in the US alone the NES became the dominant console on the market. Then in 1991 Nintendo released its successor to the NES, the 16-bit "Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)". This wasn't as much as a market dominator as the NES was, but it did just as well as it's competitors. One of the strong points of the SNES was its abundance of RPG's (many by Squaresoft), which every other system lacked.
In 1995 Sony and Sega both released their 32-bit consoles. To compete with these consoles Nintendo released it's 64-bit console the "Nintendo 64 (N64)" in 1996. On release the N64 sold remarkably well. Shortly after the release though the life of the N64 started to go down hill. With few releases there wasn't enough games to keep people devoted to the system. One of the main reasons for there being so few releases was that the development costs of the N64 were so big. In the past, Nintendo charged a premium price to publish games on its system. Publishers had to pay Nintendo upwards of $35 per cartridge with a minimum order of 100,000 units, adding up to an expense of $3.5 million before development costs were figured in. This put many developers off producing games for the N64 and turned them to the ever-popular CD based console the "Playstation". Another one of the reasons that the N64 didn't do too well was due to its lack of Role Playing Games (RPG's). The development company Squaresoft used to make loads of RPG's for Nintendo that were hugely popular. But when Nintendo decided to make the N64 cartridge based it fell out with Squaresoft due to the massive development costs. With this fall out Squaresoft took their franchise over to Sony and released their famous RPG's on their system, adding to its popularity.
So due to the not hugely successful N64 you may be thinking why I think the Gamecube will be the next market leader in the console market. Well for starters Nintendo are scrapping the cartridge-based system for a system based on mini CD's. These mini CD's will cut the cost of development and with Nintendo willing to cut deals with high-profile publishers this time round the development cost will be even lower. Also with the mini CD's I just mentioned, these will help to get developers onboard the Gamecube bandwagon because they incorporate some very good anti piracy techniques. The mini CD's are only 8cm wide so you will not be able to use an everyday CD writer to copy the CD's and put them in your machine. And the inner curves of the 8cm discs feature proper branding which will also help against piracy. These anti piracy methods will help get developers onboard because they don't like it when they loose out on thousand of pounds due to people copying their software. Also to get developers onboard Nintendo have designed the Gamecube so that it is really easy to produce games for. Reports have been coming out from games developers that the Playstation 2 is a monster to produce games on, but the Gamecube is supposed to be really easy to make games on. This will win over developers because it means that development costs will be down due to the reduced time spent producing the games.
Another reason the Gamecube will be a success is that Squaresoft is not just supporting Sony anymore. They have been in talks with Nintendo and are now going to produce games again for Nintendo, which will help because one of the N64's failures was a lack of RPG's, and with Squaresoft onboard this should not happen with the Gamecube.
Another point to make is that Nintendo is not marketing the Gamecube as a total home entertainment system like the Playstation 2 is. Instead Nintendo is marketing it as the best games console available. By producing the Gamecube as only a games playing machine Nintendo are keeping the selling price to a minimum because to incorporate the needed hardware and software to make a system play DVD's and music as well as it's games, beefs up the price quite a bit.
Nintendo are aware of the other consoles coming out and so to compete head on with the X-Box, Nintendo are letting Matsushita integrate Gamecube's technology into it's own branded DVD consumer electronic products, so that you can watch DVD's and play Gamecube games on the same machine.
One of the other aspects that will propel Nintendo in the next fight for supremacy is the arrival of the next incantation of the Gameboy the "Gameboy Advance". Having just been released the GBA has sold phenomenally well. Nintendo did a very craft marketing campaign by putting a picture of the Gamecube on the back of the GBA box, so that it made aware to people not in the no, that soon the new Nintendo machine is going to be released. The Gameboy is currently the leading handheld console on the market with very little opposition to it. And so, now that the GB Advance has been released everyone will want one. The advantage this has for Nintendo is that by making games on the Gameboy Advance and Gamecube link up, people that own a Gameboy Advance may feel the need to buy a Gamecube so that they can use the stats etc they have acquired on a game on the Gameboy, on the version of the game on the Gamecube.
Pokemon! This is one of the most popular things in ages. Nintendo has capitalized on this franchise quite well and numerous versions of the game have been produced and they sell like mad. More than 65,000,000 Pokemon videogames had been sold world-wide as of July 5th, 2000. Now with figures like that you must understand that Pokemon is a very powerful franchise to use to win over the masses to a new machine. And so Nintendo are going to capitalize very well on Pokemon on the Gamecube by creating a fully 3D version of the ever popular game. And I must say that if that doesn't win over a few million consumers to the Gamecube I don't know what will.
Another reason that people will buy the Gamecube though is for the next Mario and Zelda games. Mario redefined the platformer game with Super Mario 64 on the N64 and people have been gagging for a sequel ever since. And if you have seen the resent footage of Mario Sunshine, you will see that it is looking to be one of the greatest platformers in recent times. Also the new Zelda game has stunned the world. Some people were really shocked and disappointed by the new look and preferred the old version, but if you see the new game in motion you fall in love with its uniqueness and just want to play it.
My final reason why the Gamecube should/will dominate is that of the games. With updates to classic games like Waverace, 1080, Mario, Zelda etc which all look stunning, people just have to fall in love with the cube. Also, I feel Nintendo is about the only developer still interested in originality. This can be seen in games like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin, two games, which just look FUN! There's a problem with most games on other platforms. There just not fun. You might play them, but you just don't get the great sense of fun you always get when playing on a Nintendo machine.
Well I think that's enough on why the Gamecube will win. Some of that was from a speech I wrote for a group comms presentation on who will win the next console war. I did manage to convince the group that the Gamecube will win, even though they mainly felt that the X-Box was gonna win. I mean there's no way the X-Box is going to win. Just take a look at it. Have you seen an uglier console, (well maybe the PS2). And the controller, how skanked up is that? Give me a well-designed Nintendo pad any day! Also the X-Box's games list is just gonna be full of PC ports and no original games at all. And going that your reading this I'm pretty sure in assuming you've got a PC which would be better for playing those games, than some skanked up conversions on the X-Box. My final point on the X-Box is that it's Microsoft! Who in their right mind wants to own a console made by them!?! As for the PS2. Well what can I say. My dopey mate bought one on the day of its release and I go round to his house and there are just not really any decent games to play on it. He's got GT3 and he's just bought Extreme G 3 and he says quite rightly that Extreme G 3 is better. Why you might ask. Well cos GT3 is just boring after a while. It's the complete driving spogs game, which just gets boring. Whereas Extreme G 3 is a high-octane fun racer. As for the other games on the PS2, well there all just PANTS! And when I'm at his house we end up playing decent games on the N64 like Perfect Dark, or Conkers Bad Fur Day, or we even play some decent games on his Dreamcast. We just hardly ever play with his kak PS2!
So who is gonna dispute that the Gamecube won't be the console leader in the next console war? It may take a while for the Gamecube to catch up to the already released PS2 (because all those stupid people who went out and bought one just cos they owned the first Playstation). I hope to hear some poor excuses from X-Box and PS2 fans as to why I'm wrong and why their waste of space consoles will be putting up a fight.
Cooky
p.s. Actually the X-Box has one thing going for it. It has the Buffy license! And I'm gonna kill the pr*t who gave that exclusively to Microsoft! Oh well, it'll probably still come out on PC so I'm not gonna cry! See another reason not to get an X-Box, all their games'll come out on PC anyway!
In the mid 80's Nintendo entered into the console market with the hugely successful 8-bit console the "Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)". Selling over 50 million units in the US alone the NES became the dominant console on the market. Then in 1991 Nintendo released its successor to the NES, the 16-bit "Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)". This wasn't as much as a market dominator as the NES was, but it did just as well as it's competitors. One of the strong points of the SNES was its abundance of RPG's (many by Squaresoft), which every other system lacked.
In 1995 Sony and Sega both released their 32-bit consoles. To compete with these consoles Nintendo released it's 64-bit console the "Nintendo 64 (N64)" in 1996. On release the N64 sold remarkably well. Shortly after the release though the life of the N64 started to go down hill. With few releases there wasn't enough games to keep people devoted to the system. One of the main reasons for there being so few releases was that the development costs of the N64 were so big. In the past, Nintendo charged a premium price to publish games on its system. Publishers had to pay Nintendo upwards of $35 per cartridge with a minimum order of 100,000 units, adding up to an expense of $3.5 million before development costs were figured in. This put many developers off producing games for the N64 and turned them to the ever-popular CD based console the "Playstation". Another one of the reasons that the N64 didn't do too well was due to its lack of Role Playing Games (RPG's). The development company Squaresoft used to make loads of RPG's for Nintendo that were hugely popular. But when Nintendo decided to make the N64 cartridge based it fell out with Squaresoft due to the massive development costs. With this fall out Squaresoft took their franchise over to Sony and released their famous RPG's on their system, adding to its popularity.
So due to the not hugely successful N64 you may be thinking why I think the Gamecube will be the next market leader in the console market. Well for starters Nintendo are scrapping the cartridge-based system for a system based on mini CD's. These mini CD's will cut the cost of development and with Nintendo willing to cut deals with high-profile publishers this time round the development cost will be even lower. Also with the mini CD's I just mentioned, these will help to get developers onboard the Gamecube bandwagon because they incorporate some very good anti piracy techniques. The mini CD's are only 8cm wide so you will not be able to use an everyday CD writer to copy the CD's and put them in your machine. And the inner curves of the 8cm discs feature proper branding which will also help against piracy. These anti piracy methods will help get developers onboard because they don't like it when they loose out on thousand of pounds due to people copying their software. Also to get developers onboard Nintendo have designed the Gamecube so that it is really easy to produce games for. Reports have been coming out from games developers that the Playstation 2 is a monster to produce games on, but the Gamecube is supposed to be really easy to make games on. This will win over developers because it means that development costs will be down due to the reduced time spent producing the games.
Another reason the Gamecube will be a success is that Squaresoft is not just supporting Sony anymore. They have been in talks with Nintendo and are now going to produce games again for Nintendo, which will help because one of the N64's failures was a lack of RPG's, and with Squaresoft onboard this should not happen with the Gamecube.
Another point to make is that Nintendo is not marketing the Gamecube as a total home entertainment system like the Playstation 2 is. Instead Nintendo is marketing it as the best games console available. By producing the Gamecube as only a games playing machine Nintendo are keeping the selling price to a minimum because to incorporate the needed hardware and software to make a system play DVD's and music as well as it's games, beefs up the price quite a bit.
Nintendo are aware of the other consoles coming out and so to compete head on with the X-Box, Nintendo are letting Matsushita integrate Gamecube's technology into it's own branded DVD consumer electronic products, so that you can watch DVD's and play Gamecube games on the same machine.
One of the other aspects that will propel Nintendo in the next fight for supremacy is the arrival of the next incantation of the Gameboy the "Gameboy Advance". Having just been released the GBA has sold phenomenally well. Nintendo did a very craft marketing campaign by putting a picture of the Gamecube on the back of the GBA box, so that it made aware to people not in the no, that soon the new Nintendo machine is going to be released. The Gameboy is currently the leading handheld console on the market with very little opposition to it. And so, now that the GB Advance has been released everyone will want one. The advantage this has for Nintendo is that by making games on the Gameboy Advance and Gamecube link up, people that own a Gameboy Advance may feel the need to buy a Gamecube so that they can use the stats etc they have acquired on a game on the Gameboy, on the version of the game on the Gamecube.
Pokemon! This is one of the most popular things in ages. Nintendo has capitalized on this franchise quite well and numerous versions of the game have been produced and they sell like mad. More than 65,000,000 Pokemon videogames had been sold world-wide as of July 5th, 2000. Now with figures like that you must understand that Pokemon is a very powerful franchise to use to win over the masses to a new machine. And so Nintendo are going to capitalize very well on Pokemon on the Gamecube by creating a fully 3D version of the ever popular game. And I must say that if that doesn't win over a few million consumers to the Gamecube I don't know what will.
Another reason that people will buy the Gamecube though is for the next Mario and Zelda games. Mario redefined the platformer game with Super Mario 64 on the N64 and people have been gagging for a sequel ever since. And if you have seen the resent footage of Mario Sunshine, you will see that it is looking to be one of the greatest platformers in recent times. Also the new Zelda game has stunned the world. Some people were really shocked and disappointed by the new look and preferred the old version, but if you see the new game in motion you fall in love with its uniqueness and just want to play it.
My final reason why the Gamecube should/will dominate is that of the games. With updates to classic games like Waverace, 1080, Mario, Zelda etc which all look stunning, people just have to fall in love with the cube. Also, I feel Nintendo is about the only developer still interested in originality. This can be seen in games like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin, two games, which just look FUN! There's a problem with most games on other platforms. There just not fun. You might play them, but you just don't get the great sense of fun you always get when playing on a Nintendo machine.
Well I think that's enough on why the Gamecube will win. Some of that was from a speech I wrote for a group comms presentation on who will win the next console war. I did manage to convince the group that the Gamecube will win, even though they mainly felt that the X-Box was gonna win. I mean there's no way the X-Box is going to win. Just take a look at it. Have you seen an uglier console, (well maybe the PS2). And the controller, how skanked up is that? Give me a well-designed Nintendo pad any day! Also the X-Box's games list is just gonna be full of PC ports and no original games at all. And going that your reading this I'm pretty sure in assuming you've got a PC which would be better for playing those games, than some skanked up conversions on the X-Box. My final point on the X-Box is that it's Microsoft! Who in their right mind wants to own a console made by them!?! As for the PS2. Well what can I say. My dopey mate bought one on the day of its release and I go round to his house and there are just not really any decent games to play on it. He's got GT3 and he's just bought Extreme G 3 and he says quite rightly that Extreme G 3 is better. Why you might ask. Well cos GT3 is just boring after a while. It's the complete driving spogs game, which just gets boring. Whereas Extreme G 3 is a high-octane fun racer. As for the other games on the PS2, well there all just PANTS! And when I'm at his house we end up playing decent games on the N64 like Perfect Dark, or Conkers Bad Fur Day, or we even play some decent games on his Dreamcast. We just hardly ever play with his kak PS2!
So who is gonna dispute that the Gamecube won't be the console leader in the next console war? It may take a while for the Gamecube to catch up to the already released PS2 (because all those stupid people who went out and bought one just cos they owned the first Playstation). I hope to hear some poor excuses from X-Box and PS2 fans as to why I'm wrong and why their waste of space consoles will be putting up a fight.
Cooky
p.s. Actually the X-Box has one thing going for it. It has the Buffy license! And I'm gonna kill the pr*t who gave that exclusively to Microsoft! Oh well, it'll probably still come out on PC so I'm not gonna cry! See another reason not to get an X-Box, all their games'll come out on PC anyway!